Smoke Won't Get In Your Eyes If . . .

TALLAHASSEE — It looks like Florida restaurants soon could get a little less smoky.

Legislation reducing the portion of a restaurant that can be designated as a smoking area could win approval today in the Senate -- with a similar bill moving on a fast track in the House.

"We're going to do it," said Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Ocoee, sponsor of the Senate bill. "We've made real progress on this issue over the years. This is good public policy."

Currently, no more than 65 percent of a restaurant can be set aside for smoking. But under Webster's bill, and House legislation sponsored by Rep. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, that level would drop to 50 percent on Oct. 1.

A year later, smokers would get squeezed even more. Smoking would be allowed in only 35 percent of an eatery in 2001.

"Many of our restaurants are already at these levels," said Carol Dover, president of the Florida Restaurant Association, which has endorsed the change. "All we've ever said is `just don't set standards that take away our right to serve smokers.'"

Indeed, the legislation is a carefully crafted compromise involving the powerful restaurant industry, anti-smoking organizations and the tobacco industry, sides which in earlier years battled vigorously -- and at times, viciously -- over clean indoor air legislation.

As with most compromises, everybody has an angle.

Restaurateurs are signing off on the standard in hopes that lawmakers won't renew efforts to ban smoking in eateries -- a move Webster, a lifelong non-smoker, previously proposed with the backing of late Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles.

Restaurants and the tobacco industry are content with having the new standard effective statewide, just like the current law. Such uniformity is key to these industries, because it forestalls the prospect of cities or counties creating their own tougher, anti-smoking laws.

And for anti-smoking advocates, the new standard is likely the best they can get from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican Legislature, whose party advocates less government regulation and has been heavily financed by the tobacco industry and Florida restaurateurs.

The tobacco industry pumped $425,000 into Florida political campaigns during the last election period, with the state GOP collecting close to $300,000, records show.

"We see that the state is not quite ready for the idea of no smoking in restaurants," said Jean Gonzalez, lobbyist for the American Heart Association. "But we hope that this change will inspire some restaurants to just go ahead and become smoke free."

The proposed new standard also would include restaurants with under 50 seats -- smaller establishments that have so far been exempt from the smoking regulations.

While satisfied with the legislation, Gonzalez said her organization still plans to push for an outright ban on restaurant smoking once diners become accustomed to the 35 percent standard that would kick in next year.